Lady Gaga delivers crazy dance-pop show

People are crazy about Lady Gaga, which is why the dance-pop star was able to quickly sell-out two-shows-in-one-night on Saturday at the Mezzanine in San Francisco. The question is: Will they still be going gaga over the Lady, say, in 2010?

Probably not.

History has shown that heavily-hyped young acts that rely on gimmicks don’t tend to last in the industry. Lady Gaga’s shtick, a bizzaro retro-futuristic mash-up of dance culture and performance art, is the height of vogue this season, but it’s also one that’s easy to imagine third-tier comedians joking about whenever VH1 gets around to filming “I Love 2009.”

It will be unfortunate, however, if Gaga (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) slips off the pop radar so quickly. The 22-year-old Yonkers native has a lot to offer, including a strong singing voice that recalls primetime Madonna and a flamboyant public persona that borrows from old-school glam-rockers like David Bowie and Queen.

Her early show at Mezzanine, which boasted a 6:15 p.m. start time, wasn’t great. Yet, it was better than what could have been reasonably expected.

In a record-label press release for this tour, the singer’s first headlining excursion after serving as a warm-up act for both the New Kids on the Block and the Pussycat Dolls, Gaga was quoted as saying, “I consider what I do to be more of an Andy Warhol concept: pop performance art, multimedia, fashion, technology, video, film.”

That’s basically what fans received in San Francisco: an over-the-top, yet fun, assault on the senses that was more performance art than regular concert.

The fashion icon appeared onstage wearing a stiff black tutu, complete with a sparkly triangle cutout over her right breast. It was a striking piece of apparel, but it was one that was hard to initially appreciate amid the heavy lighting from the back of the stage and all the manufactured fog being pumped out. For the first number, the electro-beat stalker manifesto “Paparazzi,” we could basically only see the singer’s platinum-blonde-dyed hair (which has led to comparisons to both Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani) and her oversized sunglasses.

She sounded fairly strong, certainly a notch above merely competent, as she sang along with some pre-recorded vocals and boogied with three male dancers to “LoveGame,” a fluffy, fun tune that sure sounds like it could be Gaga’s next single. The only other person onstage was DJ “Mr. Space Cowboy,” who did a fine job rocking the beats.

She next appeared wearing sexy space-age-themed lingerie, the kind of deal Mrs. Jetson might don if she was looking to get lucky. The top only went down to her hips, exposing her tiny bikini briefs. Fortunately, Gaga’s body is even better than her voice – and her sex appeal has become a major selling point of this tour.

There were some definite problems with this gig. For one, it was heard to make out what she was saying to the crowd between songs, and what could be understood most often wasn’t worth hearing. Another problem is that she took far too long with her costume changes, especially for a show that clocked in under an hour. Also, the video segments – such as the one showing Gaga stroking her hair with a pink Hello Kitty brush – were pretty much pointless. (The house videos of “The Creature from the Black Lagoon” were vastly more entertaining.)

Yet, those things didn’t make the tunes “Poker Face” and “Just Dance” (nominated for Best Dance Recording at the 51st Grammy Awards) any less entertaining.

Indeed, Lady Gaga successfully proved at the Mezzanine that she’s got the right songs and she’s got the right concept, never once breaking from her weirdly robotic character during the course of the evening. Let’s just hope that she sticks around long enough to show us what else she’s got.